Aruna Quadri will battle Yaroslav Zhmudenko of Ukraine in the quarter-final of the men’s singles at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender in Durban, South Africa.
The African number one defeated 16-year-old Felix Lebrun, a French sensation, at the Olive Convention Center on Friday to qualify for the final eight.
Aruna had to claw his way back and stay alert all through to narrowly edged the teenager 3-2 in the keenly contested round of 16 match.
He lost the first game 3-11 to Lebrun but the Nigerian wrestled the second game with an 11-6 response.
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The teenager shocked Aruna in the third game and won the topsy-turvy round 12-10.
The fourth game also appeared to have slipped beyond the Nigerian until he powered back to win at 15-13 and keep the match at two all.
The experience of the 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medalist shone through in the final game which he dominated and won 11-5 to end the dream of Lebrun in South Africa.
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Aruna goes up against 145th-ranked Zhmudenko on Saturday and the winner will face Simon Gauzy of France or Dang Qiu in the semi-final.
In the women’s singles, Dina Meshref of Egypt overcame Poland’s Natalia Bojer 3-0 to qualify for the quarter-final.
She is billed to face Chinese Taipei’s Chien Tung-Chuan in the next round.
The tournament ends on January 15 with the finals of the singles events.
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